The Song of the Bird鳥之歌

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Humans speak when they are happy and speak when they are sad. They speakwhen they are angry and they speak when they see a beautiful thing. They try tospeak even when they have nothing to say. Well， songbirds1 are the same.

They sing to tell their neighbors and strangers where their home is. Or theymay sing to warn2 other birds that an enemy3 is near. During the mating4 season，male birds sing with a great feeling. That’s because they want female birds tolike them.

The sparrow， the parrot， the thrush， the koel and even the crows aresongbirds. Nearly half the birds in the world are songbirds. There are about 4，000kinds of songbirds， and they are of many families. Songbirds can sing because theyhave a great and powerful5 vocal organ6， and it is called the syrinx7.

Ornithologists8 say they may practice their songs in some kind of schools，and there are elders teaching them along.

From the way they sing， we may think that these songbirds are bright andbeautiful. But， no， these birds are often small， dark-colored animals. And they livea lonely life in forests or on open grassland.

In fact， male birds with beautiful feathers do not sing; their bright feathers areso beautiful that the female birds like them， or to give a clear signal to other birds.Also， songbirds’dark feathers help them hide from their enemies.

The birdsongs are not always pleasing9， too. An American studied the redeyedvireo. The bird made the same sound 22，197 times in one day！ As the wellknownIndian ornithologist Dr. Salim Ali has said， hearing the musical10 sound ofthe koel can also be hard on the ears！

人類高興的時候會說話，難過的時候也會說話；生氣時會說話，看到美好的事物時也會說話；甚至無話可說時，也會試著說話。（剩余479字）